Vortex
by Tiki Rocket
Summary: Meet Neo Team Rocket, the children predestined to save the universe from destruction!... Even if they'd rather do homework... Can the four stop fighting long enough to act like a team?
1. Children of Silph (Act 1, part 1)

VORTEX  
Act 1: Children of Silph  
Author: Tiki Rocket  
  
  
"I know my past. I can see it from someone else's perspective, because I've become someone else. And yet, at the same time, I'm the same person.  
I'm two people in one, but I'm one person. I was someone else... But now I'm me.  
But who is that, anyway?"  
  
~ The Journal of Tikiata  
  
  


Tessa Hart was dead when the Vortex opened in her room, when the team from Silph stepped in. When her body was researched later, to see if there was something physically wrong that had killed her, they found nothing.  


They suspect she just didn't see a point in living. 

Her real family still remains a mystery. As far as her parents know, she ran away from home, unable to deal with pressures from school, or maybe kidnapped. They might still be looking for her; or, as a member of the team reported later, it's suspected they didn't care. Monitors placed around the house showed that activity from the parents passed on as what was probably usual. 

They used her blood and tissues for genetic research projects on level 8. It was about this time they were learning about genetic engineering, and the wonders of duplication. 

Most were dubious about cloning, arguing that humans haven't the right to play God even if they had the technology, but a handful thought it was possible. This handful gathered together the money they could spare and used some funding to try. 

And they succeeded. 

Within a year, they had a thirteen year old adolescent to deal with. 

She wasn't a perfect replication, though no one expected her to be. Her eyes were green instead of blue. She was slightly taller than she should have been. Her fingers were a little too long to look quite normal, despite her small hands. These details, however, were a few of the minor problems that had been expected; There were no serious physical deformities, no disorders of the brain. This alarming success caused some of the more careful scientists to suspect they had done something wrong; how often does the first experiment end up being the right one without some major flaw? 

As time passed, though, she proved to act normal, if a little quiet. She was also, apparently, more prone to dyeing her hair black in the laboratory sinks. 

"Dammit!" swore her caretaker, who was beginning to feel more and more like a zoo keeper every day. He scrubbed at the sink with a heavy bleach, feeling a chemical burn developing on his wrist. *And the other one had finally healed, too,* he thought sourly. *Tikiata's gonna regret this one...* 

Sighing, he glanced at his watch. 

*Assuming security finds her soon...* * 

"Oh, he is cute...!" Tikiata - AKA Tiki - whispered to Lea, one of her best friends and few people she could socialize with safely in the building. 

"Who, him?" Lea asked, motioning as casually as she could at someone across the cafeteria. 

"Yeah!" 

"Eh. A little too skinny and pale for my tastes." She glanced in another direction. "Ooh, but he's nice..." 

Tiki followed Lea's line of vision. "Lea, for chrissakes, he's bleach blond, muscle-bound, and probably dumb as a box of rocks!" She made a face in his direction, even though he couldn't have seen her from her hiding spot. "I bet he's not supposed to really be here. I bet he was one of Silph's projects that they let out. Probably testing some kind of safer-than-steroids pill or something. They should put him back in his cage." 

Lea laughed at her companions distaste for buff males. "Technically," she replied, "You should be put back in your cage, too." 

"Ha! I think not!" Tiki shot, snorting. "It's boring in there. Hnh, I bet it was you who let him out of his cage, wasn't it?" 

Lea's face shifted to the image of innocence. "Who, me? I would never!" 

"Liar!" Tiki pulled her eyelid down at Lea and stuck her tongue out. 

"Lab rat," Lea said, returning the gesture. 

"Frizz for brains." She tugged Lea's long curls for effect. 

"Good for nothing. You oughta go to the gym and work out, you're starting to get flabby." 

"Ha, you should talk, you- Eep!" 

"What kind of insult is that? Ack!" 

Tiki pulled Lea around a corner as one of the Silph armed guards walked by, scanning the crowd. 

"In case you've forgotten, you moron, some of those guards aren't just keeping an eye out for skeevy people, or heading to the cafeteria for their breaks. They're looking for ME," She hissed. 

Lea grinned. "Don't you feel like an escaped convict or something, hiding from them?" 

Tiki shot her a sarcastic smile. "Do you wonder if you'll be punished like one if Daddy dear were to find out you not only don't return the lab experiments when you find them running loose, but are actually usually the one who's set them free in the first place?" Tiki's voice raised higher in pitch as she spoke, using the fact that Lea's (adopted) father was the Silph President. 

Lea sweatdropped profusely. 

"Okay, okay, I'll get better about being a lookout!" 

A hand clamped down on both girls' shoulders, scaring them witless. 

"Eep!" Both shrieked, thinking despairing thoughts. 

"Sh! Honestly, do you both want to get caught?" Came a mocking response from behind. 

"StormChaser, you friggin' bastard!" Tiki snapped, whirling around and punching him on the shoulder. 

StormChaser punched back. "I'm not the one who's gonna get in trouble if their found by a guard!" 

Tiki sighed, wondering if she would ever get used to the forty-year old woman's voice coming from the body of a 13 year old, well built boy. 

"Fem," Tiki said in a mock-tired voice. 

"Whatever," her replied, mimicking her tone. "So what've you two done already today?" 

"You mean done and gotten away with?" Lea corrected, smiling pleasantly. 

Tiki tried to imitate Lea's expression, but could only manage a more evil looking version. "We were playing in the kitchen." 

Lea nodded. "There was a frying pan left out in the open." 

Tiki's expression changed to almost pass for wide- eyed innocence."There was an open bottle of creme sherry dangerously close to it-" 

"-So we decided to do a demonstration on why alcohol shouldn't be poured on a hot surface-" 

"-and... well... Let's just say that the chef is down one mustache and half his unibrow..." The two girls turned to look at each other, and burst out laughing. 

"I'd almost say I wish I could've been there, but I don't think I could help take the blame for that," SC said, rolling his eyes. 

"Hey, you kids!" 

The two troublemakers and almost innocent bystander froze in their tracks. "Shit," Tiki muttered. Despite the seriousness of the situation, SC made an annoyed face and elbowed her. 

"Don't swear." 

"Get away from that doorway! You shouldn't be anywhere near there!" 

"Huh?" 

The trio turned and looked at the door label. In perfect unison, they read: "Basement." 

Lea looked at Tiki and StormChaser cluelessly. "What's wrong with this doorway?" They all knew it was the way to the basement; who's brilliant idea it was to put it on the second floor they had no idea, but they'd gone down there (against rules) a million times. They hadn't seen anything major... 

"I dunno what's wrong with it," Tiki muttered, "But Lea, dear, PLEASE, let's not pick a fight with the armed guard about it!" 

"Right." They turned their attention back to the guard. 

"Sure thing! Wouldn't want to disobey Silph rules!" SC said, plastering on a smile. Tiki and Lea did the same, Lea muttering between her teeth "Even though I'M allowed to access every room in the building..." 

"Not NOW, Lea, "Tiki hissed back. The guard focused on Tiki. 

"Hey... Aren't you the-" 

Tiki blanched, blue-blushing. "Nope! We get confused all the time, but whoever you think I am, I'm not! BAI!" That said, she grabbed her companions' wrists and bolted down the hall at a phenomenal speed. * 

"That was close," Tiki muttered, breathing hard. 

"No shit," SC replied sourly. Tiki elbowed him half-heartedly. "Don't swear." He rolled his eyes at her. 

Lea, who'd been panting for air, froze suddenly. Tiki looked at her, mildly concerned. 

"Lea?" 

Lea's face broke into a wide grin, and she took off running down the hall. A moment later the sounds of 

"CRASH" and papers scattering rent the air, shortly followed by "J-Babe!" 

"Jeez, Lea, get offa me!" 

Tiki and SC looked at each other, and burst into laughter. 

"Ohdear!" SC gasped out, making it sound like one word. "Josh just got pounced!" 

Tiki tried to compose herself. "Come on, let's go pry her off." 

The pair turned the corner Lea had taken, and struggled hard not to lose their calm expressions. 

Lea certainly had pounced Josh. Him, and everything he'd been carrying. They were both buried in papers, pens, and various bits of research equipment. 

"Oh... dear..." Tiki said, biting her lip to try and contain herself. "Josh, are you all right? Anything broken? Bones? Cartilage? Equipment?" 

Though she intended the last suggestion to be directed at the lab equipment, she'd said it with bad timing. Lea, StormChaser, and Josh's eyes widened, and all were taken by a fit of giggles. 

"I didn't mean it like that!" Tiki cried, waving her arms frantically. 

"Oh, so you mean you don't care if I broke 'it'?" Josh said accusingly, mock hurt expressed on his face. 

"Why should I?" She said haughtily. "It's not like I'M going to use it." 

Lea, who was already laughing hard, hit the floor, gasping for air through fits of giggles. SC's eyes, now bigger than saucers, stared at Tiki, hands covering his mouth. Tiki grinned like a jackal, pleased at the reactions. 

Josh's laughter melted into a serious tone when he glanced at his watch. "Oh crap, you guys, help me!" he said, panicking. "I've got to be in one of the labs across the building in 10 minutes! MY PAPERS ARE EVERYWHERE!" 

Without a word, the four began collecting the mess together. 

"J, it's gonna take a while to get this organized..." Tiki mumbled. 

"Not too difficult," he replied. "I've started numbering my pages since the first.... Incident." 

Lea blushed faintly. The first time she'd pounced him and knocked everything into disarray, it'd taken nearly an hour to organize everything again. Thankfully, the meeting he had been going to was much later, but he'd since decided to be more careful. 

"Here!" SC said, handing Josh the large stack of papers he'd collected from the floor. "I think that's the last of it." 

"And here's your equipment," Lea added, smirking as she set the lab equipment on top of the papers. 

"Lea, you shouldn't be touching that," Tiki said, snickering. 

"All right, thanks!" Josh said, ignoring the last comment, "Bai!" And he was gone, down the hall. 

StormChaser shook his head sadly. "This building is robbing that kid of his youth," he muttered, half scolding. 

"It's not the building," Lea said, almost defensively. "The building's innocent. It's Daddy's closest underworkers, they're the ones in charge of employment." 

"'S J-babe's fault, too," Tiki added. "He chose to use his amazing intelligence this way. And besides," She continued, half grinning. "The plus is that the pay is astronomical." 

They all nodded their assent. 

* 

They spent the next two hours wandering around the Silph building, watching lab experiments through one- way windows or hiding Tiki while Lea socialized with half what seemed like half the building's staff. 

Eventually, they wound through the halls to arrive at the meeting room Josh was in. 

Just as Lea was about to get up and start making faces at him through the window in the door, the door flew open, and nearly smashed her face. Her indignance at such treatment (of both the building and herself) almost grew into a rage, and it took both Tiki and StormChaser to hold her mouth shut and hands down from the important looking businessman who'd rushed out. He turned back to look in the doorway, shouting "And what kind of business has a staff made up of children?! It's unprofessional!" before hurrying down the hall, face red. 

Shortly following the decidedly annoyed business man came several more, and a few scientists of varying ages. As soon as the flow of people stopped, the trio bolted through the doorway. 

"Josh!" Lea shrieked with joy. 

"What?" he replied, obviously irritable. 

"I found you!" 

"Yes... you did..." 

Tiki gave him a hard look. "The meeting sucked, didn't it?" 

Josh looked at her in annoyance. "Yeah. What was your first clue?" 

"Well, for starters the cranky looking business man who nearly sent Lea into next week with the door." 

Josh rolled his eyes upward. "Giovanni... He's the guy who runs Rocket Co., Silph's competitor. He's trying to either get bigger than or buy Silph. He was annoyed because he couldn't get any information of the Silph Secret Projects out of us, so he up and left." 

"Secret Projects?" Tiki said, blinking. "What secret projects?" 

Josh couldn't help but smirk. "Like you. If he'd known there was one of our projects standing outside the door as he'd left, he probably wouldn't have been in such a hurry." 

"God, he sounds like he's as bad as my sister on PMS," Lea muttered. 

Josh grinned. "Worse. He makes your sister look like a saint." Lea's eyes widened in fear. 

Tiki stared at the wall thoughtfully. StormChaser took the opportunity to make smart comments. 

"It's not melting, if that's what you're waiting for." 

Tiki snapped out of her daze. "Huh? Oh, just thinking." 

"Whatcha thinking?" "Does it hurt?" 

Tiki glared at Lea, then replied, "I'm thinking the roof sounds like a good place to calm our nerves for a while. What do you think?" 

Thus began the search for the roof. 

* 

The Silph Company building was a maze of hallways, elevators, and stairways. Unless you were raised in the building, getting lost was the most common problem, and even those who had grown up there sometimes found it difficult to navigate. 

In other words, to get to the roof from ground zero would take up to an hour. 

The four had been to the roof once for science class. The teacher had gotten lost on the way. 

Two hours whiled themselves away on the children jogging back and forth between stairways in the labyrinth known as Silph, with all it's dead ends and hidden stairs, secret rooms and constant back tracking. 

Finally, gasping for air, they found the last doorway up to the roof, climbed up, stumbled out, and collapsed into the pebbles that covered it, basking in the feeling of sunlight on their skin. 

Tiki closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. The rooftop held hundreds- maybe thousands- of plants, and closest to her at the moment were the delightfully intoxicating jasmine flowers. She sighed happily. 

"Boo." 

"EEP!" 

Tiki's eyes flew open in surprise to see Lucky, the 'space cadet' of the circle of friends. 

"Lucky! Hi!" 

"Hiya!" Replied the beaming girl. "What brings you this high in the sky?" 

"A need to get out of that restricting building, stop and smell the flowers. You?" 

Lucky stepped back as Tiki and the others stood up. "Working on my tan." She grinned, striking a pose. She was wearing an aqua bikini, and a few feet away was a chair one would normally expect to see by a pool... 

"Lucky?" Lea asked. "Did you borrow the chair from the water recreation room in the gym?" 

"Yep!" 

Jaws dropped all around. 

"That's on the first floor," SC muttered. 

"19 floors down, 20 if you include the roof," Josh added. 

"Uh huh! It took a while to get it up here." 

"No, really?" Tiki said sarcastically. 

"Lucky flipped her light brown hair, not quite catching the sarcasm. "Yup! Good thing I knew where the 

elevator was or it would have taken me longer." 

The others facefaulted. 

"Right..." 

* 

"We were so young and innocent, then. We didn't understand the purposes Silph had, or Rocket's intentions. We were trapped in our own world, having shut the door and locked the way out ourselves. 

But everything has to change sometime, even if it's not for the better." 

~ The Journal of Lea Marie 

Lea yawned groggily. It'd been three months since that trip to the roof, one they repeated at least once a week. Now, school was in. 

The classes were divided into a beehive of rooms, each room for a different grade level. The rooms were all big enough to fit 50 kids comfortably, and divided into six different sections. Each day, the kids would rotate one class over, clockwise: Math, English, history/geography, sciences, art, and a study hall. The sections had 7 foot dividers seperating them, though a well aimed spitball or eraser could make it over the top to hit fellow classmates in the head. 

Today, it was four hours in the Math corner. 

Lea's head slipped from her hand and slammed into the desk. *I hate Mondays SPECIFICALLY because of this class,* she thought. She felt someone poke her in the back. Trying to be discreet, she leaned back in her chair, and whispered between her teeth, "Hi Maggie, what's up?" 

"Not much, other than watching you develop bruises," Maggie (Lea's close friend since coming to the Silph building) whispered back, grinning. Lea's hand flew to her forehead. 

"Am I really getting a bruise? Oh no!" 

"Sh!" Maggie hushed her before she could make a seen. "I'm just kidding, relax, you're still clear. But you probably shouldn't do that again, just to be safe. Remember that one time when you did that?..." 

"and I had a blue-green spot for a week..." Lea shook her head, trying to shake off the lingering embarrassment. "Yeah, that memory still comes up pretty clear. No repeats of that." A large wad of paper suddenly smacked into the back of Maggie's head, and she turned to glare in the direction it'd come from. Through the doorway to the english corner, StormChaser was looking in her direction, face the depiction of mock "Hmm, gee, I wonder who did that?" She smiled at him, blushing faintly. Tiki, who was sitting on the other end of the Math corner, rolled her eyes at them; Lea just struggled to keep from giggling. 

She turned back to her math notebook. It was only supposed to be used for class, but half of it was full of stories. The other evening, her older sister had caught her making up stories when she was supposed to be doing homework. 

"LeaMarie, what are you doing?" She'd asked wearily. 

"Nothing," Lea replied sweetly. "Absolutely nothing at all." 

"Liar. You've got to finish your homework, Daddy's got high expectations of us, and so does everyone else. We're the daughters of Silph's leader." 

"I'm just his adopted daughter," Lea said, smiling despite the sting it dealt her heart. 

"You're still his child by law, you're still my sister, meaning I've still got to make sure you do what you're supposed to, and right now that's homework!" Big sister's flame-like hair was bristling with annoyance, and she looked fairly peeved. 

"Okay," Lea replied in a small voice. Her sister's eyes softened, and she smoothed her hair out. 

"I'm sorry," She said. "I'm just concerned about your well being. You know," she continued, raising an eyebrow, "I've noticed you slipping out at night to hang out with Tiki." 

Lea blushed, and tried to play dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about." 

"Oh yes you do! You let her out of the lab and run around wreaking havoc on poor defenseless Silph workers. I think I heard the Chef calling you 'ze twin terrors mucking up zis fine estableeshment'," she said, mimicking the French accent. Lea cringed, causing her sister to add hastily, "But I think he meant it affectionately! So... What do you two do when you're out?" 

"She sometimes lets herself out, you know," Lea muttered in a pouty defense. 

"I know. That was when Dad would lock you in the apartment and pandemonium would still break loose. Why do you think Dad gave up on thinking you were the one completely responsible?" 

Lea shrugged, unsure of the right answer. 

"Anyway, what do you two do when you aren't causing trouble?" 

"Talk, gossip-" 

"About boys?" 

"Duh.- I help her with homework, we go find the others and play... Lotsa stuff." 

"So she gets out a lot, huh?" 

Lea blushed again. "Yeah..." 

"Tell me, do both of you set the lab animals free, or is that entirely you?" 

Lea looked up and said indignantly "So I feel sorry for the poor Growlithes, okay? And I think Tiki feels sorry for the Meowths..." 

Her sister grinned. "Just be careful. You almost got caught last time." 

Lea looked at her suspiciously. "Have you been following me?" 

"Editing security tapes, too." She winked at her younger sister, who smiled back. 

"Thanks, Sis." 

"Lea Marie, PAY ATTENTION!" SCHMACK. 

The ruler came down hard on her desk, snapping Lea out of her reverie. 

"Ack! What?!" 

"You are not allowed to ignore the teacher!" 

Lea pulled out the class rules book and flipped through it. "There's nothing in the rulebook that says I can't." 

Tiki began snickering from her end of the room. A sharp look from the teacher, however, found her studiously writing down notes from the board. 

Lea sat back in her chair, ignoring the rant her teacher was giving her. 

*I can't WAIT until tomorrow,* she thought. *At least the English teacher isn't this batty.* 

* 

As soon as class was out, Lea grabbed Tiki and Maggie by the wrists and dragged them through the building to her apartment. Because of how demanding Silph jobs could be, many of the workers lived in the apartments attatched to the building with their families. Lea, being daughter of Silph's leader, was no exception; however, her family's appartment was comparatively much bigger, and made a wonderful place to hang out. 

Lea unlocked the door, fumbling a little, tumbled in, dashed for her room and grabbed some street clothes, then made for the bathroom. 

"If there was any doubt before, this proves it: It's Monday," Tiki said, watching Lea's desperation to get out of the school uniform. 

"Yup. She's only like this on Math days," Maggie replied. She grinned. "Good thing I know what I'm doing in that class, or both of you would be lost!" 

Tiki pulled her eyelid down and stuck her tongue out at Maggie. "Bida!" She released her face and looked thoughtfully at the navy blue skirt. "Why do you suppose they make us wear these, anyway?" 

"It's because sometimes other schools come into the building on field trips," Maggie said. "If an outside group of students were to come into our classroom to see how it is that Silph performs it's 'revolutionary teaching methods', we wouldn't want them to get mixed up in our class. This, and it also creates a level of uniformity and equality among the students. Besides," she added, grinning, "They're soo stylish!" 

"Hah! Yeah, right. I'd rather wear the boys uniform. Skirts are so uncomfortable. I think some of the silph workers are perverts, the way they watch us walking down the hall! I'd swap uniforms with StormChaser any day!" 

"I don't know how willing he'd be to wear a skirt to class..." 

Lea listened to the present members of her study group discuss whether or not StormChaser would look good in a skirt. She sighed, removing the annoying uniform she was wearing in favor of loose black jeans and a blood red tank top. She folded her uniform, knowing she would like it better the next day, and opened the bathroom door. 

"Mm, I dunno, I don't think he'd shave his legs willingly..." 

"Well we could always try to get him to wear thigh high socks, which will hide most of the leg hair." 

Lea sighed again. "Sorry to interrupt your fascinating conversation, but... the bathroom's free." 

The pair looked at each other, then at the bathroom, and raced towards the door. 

"DIBS!" 

There was a 30 second push/shove contest through the bathroom door that Tiki won, and she changed into the street clothes she'd brought with her. 

"Ready to set up for homework?" Lea asked Maggie. 

"Not yet!" Maggie cried, sounding almost panicky. 

"Ack! Why?" 

"Because... I haven't changed yet! And SC's not here, and Josh isn't here-" 

"Josh doesn't need to be here." 

"Yeah, but sometimes he shows up to help! -Lucky's not here either." 

"Right..." 

The door to the bathroom opened just as the doorbell rang. Maggie bolted for the bathroom, and Lea thought she heard her say "he can't see me in my uniform!" before she went to open the door. 

"How much you wanna bet that's at least one of the people Maggie listed?" Tiki called after Lea. 

Tiki was right; There stood all three. 

"Let's break out the books!" Lucky jubilated as she entered, beaming the whole way down the hall to the Lea's room. SC grinned. 

"You shoulda seen her bouncing down the hall. The one thing she likes more than school is studying. At least, during the school year." 

"I know, she comes with a whole new set of rules in the summer," Lea muttered, grinning back. 

"I figured I'd stop in, see if I could help," Josh said, stepping inside. 

"Stop making excuses, you were bored, weren't you?" Lea said accusingly. 

"Well... Yeah..." 

"Come in, maybe you can help a couple hopeless math cases. SC might need some help with his English." 

"I'll help with that!" Tiki called out. "Math's not due till next week!" 

"She's got good hearing," Josh muttered. 

"I know, isn't it annoying?" Lea replied softly, then yelled back "You aren't putting off your math, you take care of that first THEN you help him with English!" 

"Fine..." Tiki irritably replied. 

Lea pulled Josh into the kitchen, forcing him to help her gather together some food to bring in. She dropped a case of Coca Cola in his arms, picked up a few bags of Doritos, and headed back to her room. 

"Welcome to the world's most unhealthy study group," Josh muttered, grinning crookedly. 

"Eh, so what?" Lea responded cheerfully. "We have fun, that's what matters." 

"Ugh, I HATE math class!" Tiki was venting as they entered. 

"Well, maybe not always fun..." Lea murmured, looking at Tiki. "What's wrong?" 

"Math class sucks. I don't get any of it!" 

"That's what we're here for." 

"Correction: That's what everyone BUT you is here for. You suck as bad at it as I do." 

Lea stuck her tongue out at the raging girl. "Well, if I get something before you, I can tell you, all right?" 

"Yeah, yeah...." Tiki said irritably. "I hate math any way." 

"Then you feel free to continue hating it." 

"I will." 

And so they set in- though somewhat reluctantly- on their math books. 

* 

Smoke. 

The air was full of it. Fires burned around her, someone crying, someone trying to find her- 

The crying was from the child in her arms; no more than 3 or 4 years old. Her hair was in curls around her head, curling tighter than the smoke surrounding them. It was herself, in a sense; herself, ten or so years ago. But now, she had to save herself instead of being saved- 

"Hoi! Where are you?" She heard someone calling her, or maybe calling to the wailing child. But the voice seemed to come from three different places at once. When she moved towards one, it faded out, and was coming from somewhere behind her. 

Lea suddenly remembered this was just a dream. She'd had it before. She knew she couldn't wake up yet, though, she still had to save the child- 

*Put her in the fire...* 

"What?!" 

This wasn't part of the dream before. This wasn't supposed to happen. Let herself burn? 

*Put her in the fire.* 

Lea's mind spun. That would kill her! She couldn't- She wouldn't- 

...She had to. 

Unhappily, she set the child among the flames. Little LeaMarie stopped crying, and smiled. 

"Bai bai!" she said, waving a small, chubby hand at her. 

And suddenly, Lea was awake. 

*How... disturbing...* she thought. 

A moment later, she was asleep, and the dream wasn't remembered in the morning. 


	2. Children of Silph (Act 1, part 2)

THE VORTEX  
Act 1: The Children of Silph (part 2)  
Author: Tiki Rocket  
  


"The four of us... We're different. We're like other kids, yeah, but at the same time, we're different. I dunno, something sets us apart. I think it has something to do with our guardians being pretty high up in the labwork here at Silph. Unlike the other three, I'm male. I like hanging out with girls, and for some reason that sets me even further apart. They aren't so rough, and we do lots of cool stuff together without always getting dirty. But the other guys think it's weird... 

Tough shit. I'm not changing for them." 

~ The Journal of StormChaser 

StormChaser closed his school book and left the science corner, then waited for Lea and Tiki. 

"We're going to Maggie's apartment to give her the Art assignment," Lea said. 

"Good afternoon to you too." 

"Oh yeah.... Good afternoon," Lea replied, grinning. The grin faded quickly. "Now, to Maggie's!" 

SC sighed. Maggie had caught something nasty earlier that week, and was staying in her apartment. Her Aunt was caring for her while her Dad worked, and was relying on Lea and Tiki for homework. He followed Lea doggedly, half resisting; Maggie was cool, but he didn't want to catch whatever she had... 

"I think I'll wait in the hall," he said as they approached the door. 

"Okay," Lea replied quickly, swinging in. Tiki hesitated a moment, caught between staying with SC and Maggie, then entered as well. 

StormChaser sighed, leaning back against the wall. Idly, he wondered how messy his hair was. He began playing with it, trying to straighten it (though it really didn't need to be straightened), and wondered where the nearest mirror was. 

"Hey, where do you suppose that freak is?" 

"{snort}Which one? There's so many of them in our class." 

StormChaser froze. It was a group of his male classmates that had some twisted personal vendetta against him that he didn't understand. He had nothing to do with them. 

Then again, maybe that was the problem; the only guy he usually hung out with was Josh, who'd passed all the courses last year, and was now working instead of going to school, learning through experience. Now, these cruel boys seemed to be looking for him, having lost interest in tormenting the younger girls. 

"The blond guy with the high voice who's always hanging out with girls." 

That cinched it. They were looking for him, and now it was fight or flight. Quickly, he bolted inside of Maggie's apartment. *Well, since I'm in here, I may as well go say hi...* 

Even the regular appartments were fairly large; not nearly as large as Lea's, but they had two rooms, a kitchen, and a dining/living/TV room. Even so, it wasn't hard to find out which room the girls were in; they made a fairly large amount of noise. 

"SC said he didn't want to come in. I think he's afraid of catching what you've got," StormChaser heard Lea saying. 

"He's being a pansy, it's not like you're contagious any more," Tiki added. 

"She isn't?" SC said, stepping in. The girls looked up in surprise. 

"Nope!" Tiki said, recovering from the alarm quickly. "What changed you're mind?" 

"Those loser guys that keep picking on me." 

"What?! Those bastards, Come on, let's go kick 'em!" 

Maggie and Lea giggled at Tiki's enthusiasm to cause pain, and SC rolled his eyes and smiled, touched by her concern. 

There was a sudden loud "BOOM!" from outside the building, startling everyone. 

"Storm," SC said instantly. As soon as it was out of his mouth, he doubted his suggestion, but Tiki, who'd gone to the window to check, reaffirmed him with "It's RAINING!!! WOOHOO! Let's go up on the roof!" 

She started a mad dash for the door, but Lea caught her and stopped her. 

"Two things: Maggie may not be able to get out there, and those boys"- she said it like it was a vulgar word- "might still be looking for SC," she said seriously. 

"I'm going to classes tomorrow, I'll be all right, and I can watch from the greenhouse instead of standing in the rain. It's got lots of flowers I can smell, and it'll be warm," Maggie said. 

"And you and I would act as body guards, so if those guys start trouble we can kick 'em!" 

StormChaser wondered why Tiki had this kicking fixation. 

Lea sighed reluctantly. "Okay. But I'm staying in the greenhouse with Maggie." 

"Why?" 

"Because rain is wet! And cold!" Lea whined, making a face of distaste. 

Tiki suppressed her laughter as she dragged Lea out the door, Maggie and StormChaser following closely behind. 

StormChaser helped Maggie into her powder blue rain coat, and grabbed an umbrella out of the umbrella rack for her. *I'm the living proof that chivalry isn't dead,* he thought, smiling inwardly. Lea was out in the hall already, tapping her foot in impatience, and Tiki was standing in the doorway chanting "Come on come on come on come on come ON!" 

Finally, StormChaser assisted Maggie out the door. Just as she was closing and locking it, there was a call of "There's that freak!" from down the hall, and feet pounding towards them. He suppressed a wave of panic, suppressing it mostly to his stomach. Turning, SC saw a group of his classmates slowing in front of him and his companions. There were 4 of them; Maggie was in no condition to fight and he wasn't about to leave her there alone (plus he wasn't much for fighting, himself), that left Lea and Tiki with two each. 

He knew this would be an easy win. 

"And it looks like he's got his loser harem with him, too," another sneered. 

"We're nobody's harem, you moron," Tiki snapped. 

"Do you even know the meaning of that word?" Lea asked, obviously trying to hide a smile. 

"You're just a couple of dumb girls," another one of the boys said. 

Tiki and Lea's eyes glittered menacingly. 

"Oh really?" Lea hissed. 

"Yeah!" 

"Well you better be prepared to eat those words," Lea said, glancing at Tiki. Tiki nodded once, grinning. 

"We're gonna kick you ass!" 

The boys laughed at the challenge, but regretted it shortly. Because of Lea and Tiki's status' in the building (one, the child of the company president, the other one of the biggest scientific experiments known to present man), they'd both been given self defense lessons in case of an emergency. Anyone that messed with them would never do it again, as illustrated when the group of boys ran away shrieking a few minutes later. 

"C'mon," Tiki said, a little out of breath. "Let's get to the roof before they make up some bullshit to security about us starting a fight." 

"Well, technically.... we did." 

"Shut up, Lea. They were posing a threat to two defenseless people." 

"I guess you're right. Once they were done tormenting SC, they'd attack Maggie." 

"Okay, okay, Maggie and I aren't in the best of fighting condition, let's go now," SC said in exasperation. If debate this wasn't interrupted, they could go on for hours. "The roof awaits." 

* 

StormChaser smiled- no, beamed- as he spun in circles on the roof, looking up at the sky as the rain poured down. Around the sound of the rain hitting the pebble-covered roof and leaves of surrounding plants, his shoulders, hair and his ears, the sound of Tiki shrieking and laughing with joyreached him, calling to Lea and Maggie in the greenhouse, acting like a five year old. He could faintly hear her feet shifting in the gravel as she pranced (barefoot; she'd cut herself if she wasn't careful). But the thunder was loud, and the rush of the rain enveloping, and the world around him spun into oblivion, blurring, greying out. He imagined he was a tornado as he spun, causing destruction, creating a barren surface. 

A void... 

The gravel crunched and ground against itself as he collapsed, dizzy from spinning. StormChaser closed his eyes as the rain soaked into his uniform- which he and Lea and Tiki had forgotten to change out of, they'd catch hell for it later- and cooled his skin. He felt the gravel shift as Tiki came closer. She was still for a moment, then poked him. 

"Boo." She said it like a statement, then giggled wildly, and dashed off between the rosebushes. He could hear them dragging their leaves and probably their thorns over her shirt and bare legs. 

His eyes slowly closed and he plummeted his mind into darkness, thinking, *It all fades out...* 

* 

His brother looked up in surprise when StormChaser entered the apartment some time later, quite soaked through. 

"StormChaser-" 

"I was on the roof. Where's uncle?" He asked, already guessing the answer. 

"Working. Ready for dinner?" 

"What is it?" 

"Roast." 

"Okay." 

"Don't you wanna dry off first?" 

"Oh yeah..." A little sheepish at having forgotten, StormChaser walked to the bathroom, pulling a towel out of the cupboard. From there he went to his room, and found some street clothes, removed his wet uniform, and dried off, half relishing in the warmth of the towel, and put on the dry clothes. He walked back out to the dining room, and sat down to eat. 

*He's not really my brother,* he thought for the umteenth time. *Dad adopted me. Dad disappeared on the job. Big Brother named me, and Uncle provides for us. Even if he's never around...* 

StormChaser suppressed a half-bored sigh, stabbing at his plate. *At least the food's good...* 

He felt something bump the chair. Jumping slightly, he turned to look at the guilty party. 

"Bowr?" 

"AGH!" 

"What is it?" his brother asked, as SC backed into a corner. 

"There's a- a- a-" he pointed, shaking. his brother's face flushed. 

"Oh no... Back to my room! Go!" 

The beast crawled back to his room, tail between it's legs, while StormChaser climbed off the coffee table and returned to the table. 

"You're as bad as Lea," he muttered. "No, worse. You release the genetic experiments, not the Captured for Testing." 

"It reminded me of a pet..." 

"Tell me, was it the ever- so- Growlithe eyes, or the Meowth like tail? Or how about the scales, did that set it off?" 

"Oh shut up, so I've had a lot of pets. I felt sorry for it!" 

"You shut up, you're the one with the animal rights complex!" 

"I'll show you!-" 

"Who'll show who?!" 

"C'mere!" 

"Agh!" 

The brothers launched at each other, wrestling like there was no tomorrow, crashing into furniture of various sorts, nearly denting the walls. Finally, SC broke free. 

"Ha! So there!" 

"You cheated!" 

"How's that possible?" 

"I dunno, but you did!" 

"Whiner." 

They looked at each other, blinked, then burst out laughing. 

"Well that was pointless." 

"Uh huh." 

"What started that, again?" 

"You and your pets." 

"All right. They aren't THAT big a problem..." 

"Yes they are." 

"No they aren't." 

"Are too." 

"Are not!" 

"Are too!" 

"TAKE THAT!" 

"OW!" 

* 

"School is important to me. My friends are important to me. My Mom is important to me. My looks are important to me. 

These are the four most important. They've all been there, listening or reassuring or being helpful in one way or another. 

But sometimes, I wonder: What if I lost them?" 

~ The Journal of Lucky 

Lucky pulled her jacket closer around her; the fall weather was getting cooler, and it was starting to become obvious that T-Shirts would definitely be needing matching sweaters soon. 

*Better bug mom about going shopping,* she thought absently. 

Her adopted mother, who was young enough to be her older sister, ranked fairly high in the building staff; one of the heads of Special Divisions, she was payed a lot of money to do her job. Somehow, her work had directly affected Tiki's 'second life', but Lucky couldn't be told the details. 

Now the person in charge of Tiki's living establishment was one of her mother's friends, another man at the head of special divisions, but of the genetics sector. Lucky had often watched Tiki and him talking, or eating in the cafeteria. Tiki almost treated him like a father, and he almost treated her like a daughter. Almost. 

Lucky shook her head, breaking that train of thought and going back to concentrating on her friends surrounding her. Tiki, Lea, SC, and Maggie were on the roof of the building with her for the fourth time that week, hiding on the other side of some large plant Lucky couldn't identify, leaning over the edge of the building and watching the sunset. Lea and Tiki had been discovered there the previous Monday leaning over the edge, spitting or pouring honey or dropping small pebbles and pennies down on any given victim below. SC had been the one to discover them there, and actually helped for a little while until they mysteriously ran out of honey (later, the boys that had been tormenting him were found covered in a crystalizing goo and surrounded by a cloud of small insects; SC had blinked innocently to prove his guilt), and then the three looked out over the town of Saffron to the surrounding areas, watching as the leaves turned and talking. Shortly after, Maggie and Lucky had arrived, exclaiming that they'd been looking for them for an hour. All was soon forgotten, though, as the whole group quickly became enchanted by the scenery. The plants on the roof (those still with flowers, anyway) smelled delightful. The forests surrounding Saffron were changing colors, and the colors entranced the small party. Now, they spent the better part of their free time up there. 

But as the sun was setting, Lucky decided to leave the roof top. She was getting too cold, and she wanted to swim. 

"I'm going down to the gym!" she announced. 

"We'll go with you!" Tiki and Lea chimed. 

"I'm gonna swim." 

"Okay, we'll go any way," Maggie said. She'd probably join Lucky in doing some laps, while Lea and Tiki were more likely to do a combination of laps and water fights. 

Since Lucky's discovery of the elevator that summer, they had used it on and off to get from the roof to where ever else they wanted to be in the building; today was one of those days. SC and Lucky discussed something they had to be doing during their classes (they were in the same class group), while Maggie and Lea talked about a blond hulking guy they'd seen in the cafeteria, and Tiki stood there rolling her eyes at them. 

In the locker room, Lucky pulled out an aqua swimsuit the same color as her bikini, and changed. In a matter of minutes, she and her companions were set to swim, Tiki in a deep green swim suit, Lea in a bright red one, and Maggie wearing orange, and everyone pulling their hair back with matching hair bands. That done, they took showers to rinse off the grit from the roof (or in Lucky's case, excess hair spray), and stepped out to the pool. 

StormChaser was waiting for them. 

"Josh is here, too," he said. "He was about to go into the pool as I was going into the locker room. I gave him fair warning you were coming," He said, grinning at Lea, who responded by sticking her tongue out at him. 

"Wow, you two are really mature," Maggie commented, giggling. 

Lucky stepped aside, and allowed her friends to pick at each other jokingly. She, however, wanted to swim. 

She stepped up on to the diving block, and jumped in. 

"Bloooshiiii..." the water rushed, as she made impact, as the bubbles rushed up and over her, as she began to move forward. It was considerably warm in the water, warmer than the roof. She heard a distant "bloosh, bloosh, bloosh, bloosh" as her remaining companions jumped in, noises varying. It sounded like someone (SC?) had cannonballed in, two (Tiki and Maggie?) had dived, and another (Lea?) had narrowly escaped a bellyflop. After that, it was almost perfectly quiet, excluding the few noises made as her friends swam or splashed. 

She began a butterfly stroke; it was a stroke she needed more work at, and one of her least favorites. If she worked at it more, it would become easier, and then maybe she'd actually start to like it... 

Back and forth across the pool, 2...3...4 times. She didn't have to think that much, she could just feel the water rushing over her skin, tugging lightly on her pony tail. 

End of 4th lap. Break. She floated in her lane on her back, ears and most of her body submerged, eyes closed. She could hear distant shouts and hoots of Lea attacking Josh, SC trying to pry them apart, and Maggie in one of the nearby lanes swimming laps. Tiki was probably swimming under water, using the butterfly kick to propel herself at unsuspecting victims, or just looking at the pool from the blue perspective. 

Lucky curved backwards in the water like a sea lion, noise becoming quieter as she slipped deeper, deciding to share in the blueness of the water with Tiki. 

This was the near silence she relished in. Water wrapping around her like a thin sheet, floating in what she could only guess limbo would feel like, everything different shades of blue... 

She rose to the surface again, taking another breath, and diving under again. Here was the perfect place to think. 

*Mom's been getting so agitated lately,* she thought. *I wonder what's going on? She goes to work so early, and gets back to the apartment so late... Geez, she's been working herself too hard...* Up for air, down again. *I think a shopping trip is definitely in order. Maybe it'll help her relax. Go out, get some new shoes, some clothes, maybe some new earrings... and DEFINITELY a good meal. She's been looking too thin, lately...* 

Lucky surfaced for air, then began swimming laps back and forth again. Now, she was going for speed. Back and forth across the pool, freestyle, backstroke, sidestroke, butterfly, breast stroke- as soon as she was done doing those, she did it again 3 more times. At the end of the 3rd, she slowed her pace, did it a fourth time, then stopped. She carefully swam over the lanes to the "play" area of the pool, where her friends were. 

"Josh! Catch!" 

Someone had found a beach ball. 

"Ack! Don't throw it at ME, you moron, throw it at Josh!" 

"Shut up, SC, the wind took it!" 

"What wind?" 

SPLOOSH. 

"TIKI, YOU LITTLE SNOT!" 

"It was funny, Lea! Besides, there's no wind in here. Moron." 

"Sure there is!" StormChaser said. Everyone looked at him. "What? There might be..." 

"I think it's just that Lea's aim sucks," Josh said. 

"I agree!" Maggie chimed. 

"You're all mean." 

"Aw, Lea, don't pout," SC said. "My aim sucks, too." 

Tiki's head surfaced just past the nose, she exhaled, inhaled, then sank down into the water again. Lucky watched the dark swimsuit approach Maggie's legs. 

"Maggie, feet up!" Lucky called. 

"Huh?" Maggie looked down, took in the situation, and brought her feet up just before Tiki made contact. Tiki surfaced. 

"Okay, who gave me away?" 

"No one. Maggie's a fine, upstanding citizen." 

"Right. Whatever." Tiki sank down into the water until only her eyes were above the surface, and glanced shiftily back and forth. Maggie glared at her for a moment, then looked back up at the struggle between Josh, StormChaser, and Lea. 

Lea had latched herself to Josh's neck. SC's arm was wedged between the two (his hand was starting to change colors, Maggie noted), and Josh had the "Why me?" look plastered to his face. 

Lucky grinned at her friends. How she'd gotten mixed up with them she would never know... 

Waitaminit, she did know. 

It was their parents. Or family members, at least. Her mother, Tiki's father, Lea's sister, and SC's brother were all working closely in Special Divisions. The fact that Lea's dad was the Silph president probably helped a little, too. 

That was the common bond. That, and being able to get along with each other so well. The group minus Tiki had met in kindergarten, and Josh was Lea's (adopted) cousin. Tiki had sort of slipped in on accident. 

Somehow, they'd all banded together, and they'd probably be together for ever. 

"Who's ready to get out?" Tiki asked, obviously getting bored. 

"I am," Lucky said. She was done with swimming for the day. No point in waiting for her fingers to prune up. 

The two girls lead the way towards the locker room, soon followed by the others, Lea redirecting Josh to the boys locker room before he walked in on accident, and forcefully redirecting StormChaser when he tried to convince her he could pass as a girl this once. 

Grabbing the shampoo and conditioner from her locker, she stepped into the showers. The floor was slick, and everyone had slipped and bruised themselves at least once. *Someone really oughta put down rubber mats,* she thought. *Fewer accidents that way.* She adjusted the water temperature to as close to comfortable as possible; It was a little warmer than she would've liked, but it was better than too cold. She stood under the water, felt it rush over her face, through her hair, over her tan skin... 

Lucky snapped out of her water-induced reverie. She grabbed the shampoo bottle and squeezed an ample amount into her hand, and began to work it in, disliking the smell and adding "new shampoo brand" to her mental shopping list. 

After dressing and saying goodbye to her companions, she was wandering the halls of the building aimlessly, absent mindedly thinking *Walking's good excersise* and wondering what her friends would do now, when she realized she was near her mother's lab. 

*The one-way mirror,* said her thoughts. She blinked in surprise. Her mother had told her once about it, and showed her inside, and even gone so far as to give her a key to it if she was ever interested in watching what her mother did. 

Now, with that silent reminder, and the pressing urge to see her mom, she thought, *Why not?* 

She unlocked the door, doublechecked the hallway to see if anyone was watching, then darted in. 

The room was dark. The only light shining in was from the lab on the other side of the window. And in the lab stood her mother, 3 scientists, and the Silph president. Through a one-way speaker in the wall, she heard them talking. 

"When will this be ready?" Lea's father asked. 

"Soon," Lucky's mother replied. "Very soon. Hopefully, if we continue at this rate, by Christmas." 

"And the GMAC's should be ready shortly after," added one of the others. "The prototype is nearly finished." 

"Have we checked out the world the GenEx girl came from?" 

"Yes," Another scientist replied, who Lucky identified as Tiki's father. *GenEx?* she thought. *Oh, GENetic EXperiment... I remember...* 

He continued quickly with, "It appears to be a world similar to our own. However, Pokemon are completely nonexistent. They have no Rocket Company, or a variant as it appears. They've got lots of different companies, making some of the same stuff, and while some are more popular than others, none are 'on top of the pile', so to speak." 

"Will the Children of Silph be safe there?" 

"Yes, sir, they should be." 

"Good." 

"Sir?" 

Lucky looked back to her mother, who's expression of intensity took her by suprise. 

"Yes, what is it?" 

"May I have permission to go through with the children, to help keep an eye on them?" 

He looked at her in surprise, shook it off, and said, "We already have monitors. We don't need any more." 

"Pardon my saying, sir, but I'd like to stay with my child." 

Lucky watched, trying to shrug off a sense of impending doom. *What's going on?* she thought. *Why is all this happening?* 

"You have a child?" he asked incredulously. "You're hardly old enough for that." 

"She's not really mine, persay. I found her, abandoned, when she was little, and I sort've became her mother." 

"How old is she?" 

"13, sir." 

"What?! You would've been 12 when you adopted her!" 

"I had help, sir." She glanced in the direction of the third- and thus far, silent- scientist. 

*SC's uncle,* Lucky thought, though she wasn't certain; She'd seen plenty of him when she was little, but almost never for the past six years. His appearance seemed to have changed dramatically. He looked.... Old. His hair was greying. His skin was wrinkled in the corners of his mouth and eyes. 

"Either way, I can't let you go. We need you here. Your daughter will be in good hands." 

"She'll be better in mine." 

The President looked at the calmly defiant woman, obviously building up on verbal ammunition, then fired. 

"She'll have no memory of you. The GMACs will keep her from remembering anything. To her, you won't exist. You'll have never existed. Stop being foolish, Ms. Renton, you can't honestly expect to jeopardize their hiding like that, can you? Of anyone working on the secret projects, you'll be most easily recognized. If Rocket Co. were to find a way through, someone would recognize you immediately. The children will be placed in good hands." 

Lucky sat there in shock, watching the argument. 

*No mom? No memories? My life here, gone?* Her mind reeled. 

"You know the age limits," he continued. "Under 15, manditory departure. The 15- 20 set is optional. 21 and up: restricted from leaving unless otherwise notified. You know where you stand, don't you? Now, if you'll pardon me, I've got more important things to do than argue." With that, he left the room quickly, trying to escape a second round of verbal sparring. Lucky heard his rush down the hall, and a faint *thud*; she snickered. He'd probably tripped over someone he hadn't seen coming. 

"Don't worry," Tiki's dad said. "It probably won't even happen." 

"But what if it does?" 

"We'll worry about that later. Now, let's make sure they'll have safe passage if something DOES happen." 

That said, the four scientists returned to their work, leaving Lucky in a confused state of mind. 

*I... I need to find the others...* she thought, stood up, and tore out of the room. *I need to be with someone...* 

* 

"I feel betrayed..." 

~The journals of Tiki, Lea, StormChaser, and Lucky 

February was mild. The holidays had passed without upset, and now everyone was growing restless. 

"Ugh..." Tiki sighed with no small amount of exasperation from her spot- upside down- on the couch. "I am so BORED..!" 

"You aren't the only one," Lea muttered. She was glaring at the computer screen. It was plastered with images of cute boys, but she'd long since given up gazing at their beautiful features. 

StormChaser was sprawled on the floor of Lea's room, looking vaguely like someone had shot him, and that had been his dying position. He almost sat up, got half way there, froze, and flopped down again. "Uhf." 

Lucky looked at him a little blankly. "Was there any point to that?" 

"Not really!" He chirped, facial expression not matching the cheery tone. "Just felt like it." 

All four sighed simultaneously. 

The door banged open suddenly, causing them to jump in alarm. 

"All of you, on your feet! Nobody move!" 

The kids looked at each other in mild confusion, but didn't stand up. 

"Uh, what's going on?" Lucky asked. 

"How the hell should I know? Last I checked, security wasn't allowed in the living quarters." Tiki responded. 

The man in the doorway grinned. Lucky frowned inwardly. *Something's amiss here...* 

"This isn't a security drill, little girls. This is a takeover!" 

"HEY!! We aren't all female!" The girls yelled and pointed at StormChaser, who had also cried this and stood up with much indignance. They all glared meaningfully at the man in the doorway. 

The stranger sweatdropped. "You're ruining the dramatic effect." 

"Oops. Sorry! Carry on," SC said with almost alarming cheerfulness. His three friends facefaulted. 

"Erhem, thank you." The mean grin returned, and he continued, "Rocket Co. is taking over this building! There's no escape from us!" 

"Uhm..." Lea and Tiki glanced at each other. 

"Why are you announcing this to a bunch of thirteen-" 

"And fourteen!" 

"Shut up Lea.- year olds? And why are you in the living establishment-" 

"Instead of somewhere more... important?" Lea finished. 

The silently proclaimed idiot in the doorway somehow managed to hide the sweatdrops forming on his brow and said, "I... need hostages to help repel attacks. Now, come with me and walk in front of me to the labs, now!" 

The kids complied easily enough, but all were thinking along the same lines: Ditch the moron and find their families. 

"This guy's a real morn," Lea whispered to Tiki. 

"I know. The only reason he needs us is for a guide to the Labs." 

"Think he realizes we're misleading him?" 

"Nope. I'm guessing he thinks we're a bunch of obedient girls plus one obedient boy." 

Lea barely supressed her laughter at the suggestion. 

"Shut up, you two!" 

"Yes sir," Tiki said, imitating a respectful tone. "I'll try and keep her from being a bad influence on my impressionable young mind." 

StormChaser's eyes widened, and he clamped his hands over his mouth, Lucky struggled to keep a straight face, and Lea fairly burst out laughing. 

"Grr... Where'd the rest of Team Rocket get to?" The man hissed, either ignoring or remaining oblivious to the children in front of him. 

"If they're as bright as you, probably still on the other side of the building," Tiki muttered. 

"ANYWAY..." Lucky said, "I think this is the secret project room." 

"What's the project?" 

"How should we know? It's a SECRET!" SC said, almost sounding like a small child. 

"We're just a bunch of kids," Lucky added. 

"Thanks, brats. Now, uh, you guard the door or something, and don't try anything funny!" He pulled out his ice gun for emphasis. "Got it?" 

The four nodded, sweat dropping. 

He opened the door and stepped inside, flicking on the light and posing with the gun in as threatening a position he could think of. "Nobody move! Huh?" 

As soon as "Huh?" was out of his mouth, Lea flicked the light off and slammed the door shut, and Tiki locked the door with the maintenance keys she'd stolen from a janitor a few days earlier and had been carrying with her since. 

"Think he gets nose bleeds from looking at girls' underwear?" Lucky asked. 

"Dunno, but I'm afraid to find out. What inspired you to choose the women's laundry room?" Tiki asked. 

"I was getting a little annoyed by him. I picked the closest room with an easy lock and the rest is history." 

They heard a loud "BAM!" noise against the door, followed by another three. 

"Lemme outta here, brats!" 

"What do you think the pounding noise was?" Tiki asked Lea. 

Lea grinned. "The moron probably shot the door. It's frozen shut, now, if he did." 

"Tiki?" Lucky asked. 

"Yeah?" 

"Why'd you steal the janitor's keys?" 

"Because I wanted to get into the cafeteria the other night," she explained. "I needed the keys." 

"...Don't you have a fridge in your apartment?" StormChaser questioned. 

"Yes," Tiki replied, speaking to him as if he were a little kid. "But I needed some ingredients for a special recipe." 

"Bull," Lea muttered. "You don't know how to cook!" 

"I was learning!" Tiki said defensively. 

There was a faint "tic" noise from the light coming on in the room, distracting the four from the topic at hand. "Oh my- aw dabbit, by nose is bleedig.." 

The four burst into peals of laughter. 

It wasn't long, however, before they had regained their composure. This was no time for humor. 

"Where do you suppose everyone is?" Tiki asked. 

"I think I know where they are," Lucky responded quickly, and took off running for the nearest elevator. 

Tiki was gasping for air by the time they got to the nearest one, three floors down. She didn't excersise much, and wasn't up for such sudden physical activity. She absently wondered how much this was going to hurt the next day. 

They all pounded on the down button, which would take them to the labs. 

"That oughta get it moving," Lea muttered, only half sarcastically. 

"It's not moving fast enough," Tiki stated under her breath. "I can feel them coming. They're destroying everything in the building that they don't think is useful, and I can feel the vibrations through the floor and walls." She looked spitting mad. 

SC gave his companion an odd look. 

"Concentrate," she said, glaring at him from behind her bangs, green eyes a sharp contrast to the white of her skin. "If you concentrate, maybe you can feel it too." 

Sighing, he tried. 

And heard it. "Ack! She's right! It's not that far away!" He reached over, and almost began pounding the poor button some more, when the doors opened. 

The four rushed in, and Lucky pushed the "close doors" button, just as all of them began hearing the raucous calls of destruction from Team Rocket. 

StormChaser reached to push the button for floor 8. Lea grabbed his wrist, used her other hand to reach into her bra, pull out a key, and stuck it in a small keyhole under the button panel. a door opened, and under it revealed another button panel identical to the buttons above. She redirected his finger to the 8 button on this panel, made him push, and released him. 

Tiki gave her a quizzical look, but before she could ask Lea explained. "Only some people in Silph know about it, mostly heads of special projects. But Daddy gave me a key, just in case. I think he expected this..." 

The back of the elevator opened just then. Tiki walked out, turned around, and said, "So where are we? I mean... it looks a lot like the rest of the building... Except the halls are narrower... Where is everyone?" 

"It's a backhall. the doors are back doors to the important labs, namely yours," Lea replied. 

"Which way?" 

"That way." 

"Let's go, then!" 

"ACK!" 

Tiki had grabbed Lea by the arm, and taken off down the hall. Lucky and StormChaser looked at each other, shrugged, and ran after them. 

Lea slowed herself down, hoping Tiki would take a hint and let go. The hint was taken, and Tiki tore off down the hall, second wind pushing her onward, slowing a little infront of doorways so she could read the number. Finally, in front of one doorway, she stopped altogether, hurled herself at it, and burst in. 

"Tiki!" a labworker- her father figure, Lea identified- cried. 

"What the hell is going on?!" Tiki replied. Lea grinned, despite the seriousness of the situation. *She is so tactless sometimes...* 

Lea had followed her through the doorway a moment later, only to find herself tightly enveloped in the arms of her sister. 

"Lea! I was so worried!" 

"Sis? What's happening?" 

"Rocket's initiating a hostile takeover on Silph." 

*Already knew that much...* she thought, though didn't mention it aloud. "They can't do that!" 

Lea was released from the hug, and taken over to where her friends were now all sitting. She saw SC's brother and Lucky's mom standing with Tiki's dad a few feet away. She saw her sister go to join them as she sat down with the others. 

"We can't explain everything right now," Lucky's Mom said. 

"We don't even know the whole of it ourselves," SC's brother continued. 

"But I promise, someday, we'll tell you everything," Lea's sister said. The look of earnest on her face was having difficulty believing itself, and it was all too obvious. 

"We have to get you out of here. All the Silph children have to. It's to keep you safe." Tiki's dad was obviously trying to hide his emotions, but she could tell that he, too, thought that was complete bull. "We have these things called GMACs: Genetic Memory Alteration Chips. It will manipulate your memory to forget your past, and give you a new one. You'll be put with a Silph family in the world Tiki originally came from until it's safer here again." 

The four Children sat and stared in disbelief. 

"You mean to tell me," Lea began, "That we're being seperated from our families just because some- some- ASSHOLE business man has control issues?!" Her voice had been rising steadily, and now she screamed, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!" 

Tiki was sighing in frustration, muttering something under her breath. SC looked alarmed, jaw clenched and eyes wide, and whatever Lucky thought was well hidden behind furrowing brows. 

Their respective caretakers approached each of them with a scalpel and GMAC, and took their hands, cutting into them to place the chip. 

Tiki glared at the floor, refusing to acknowledge the pain in her left palm, or the man causing it. 

"Dammit, dammit, dammit..." she muttered. 

"Where'd you learn that colorful language, anyway?" 

"You, after I'd dyed my hair in the sink again," she snarled, permitting herself to forget she was ignoring him long enough for that. 

"Oh..." 

Lea, on the other hand, was glaring malevolently at her sister. 

"How dare you hide this from me?" She demanded. 

"I had to, Lea. You've got to understand that." 

"Well, now what are you going to do?" 

"I'll figure it out and tell you later." 

"How much later?" 

"... I don't know." 

"Ugh.... Dammit! That hurt!" Lea let her anger blow the pain out of proportion. 

Her sister gave her a hard look. "Duh." 

StormChaser wasn't glaring. The pain from his hand and feeling of deception in his heart far outweighed his anger. however, he WAS giving his brother the most forlorn and morose look he could muster. 

"Stoppit. You're gonna make me feel guilty," his brother said. 

"That's the point." 

Lucky looked and felt miserable. She'd known this was going to happen. She knew it was going to end like this. If only she'd just suggested leaving the building or something, or hiding until things had blown over a bit and they could escape... She felt boxed in by how she'd kept from talking, how she'd betrayed her friends, how she'd betrayed herself. She kept trying to think of some way out, maybe it still wasn't too late... 

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn't feel the pain of the knife, or the chip being pushed in. 

All this: Anger, bitterness, regret, doubt, was how the four began their trip into the other world. 

As things slowly dimmed around them, Tiki muttered, "Every time I look at the scar on my hand I'm gonna think of you, ya know." 

"You won't remember me." 

"Yes she will," StormChaser argued, sounding like a child again. "We'll refuse to forget you." 

"They ARE stubborn..." Lea's sister said, trying to hide the sadness in her voice with a little humor. 

"That's true," Lucky's mom agreed, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks as Lucky fell asleep. Sleeping was a side effect of the chip: To make forgetting easier, it put you in a deep sleep while it buried your past in your subconscious and gave you a new one. 

"Sis, you've gotta remember to get my notebooks and put them with me in the other place!" Lea started, jumping up in slight panic. "And my CDs, and my floppy disks-" 

"Already done," she replied, pointing to one of four boxes. "All the stuff you might need is in there." 

"Thanks... Oh, uhm, I think I'm gonna fall..." Lea tipped forward, narrowly missed being caught by her sister, and was gone. 

"It's just us, now," SC said to Tiki. 

"You're next," Tiki replied. 

"Nuh- uh," he shot. 

"Yuh huh! I always go last." 

"Ergh.... You might be right..." 

"What? No! Fight me on this one!" 

"...How?..." 

"I dunno... Sing with me." 

"Okay... uh... 'I will remember you'..." 

Tiki felt a lump in her throat at the depressingly fitting song, and joined in. 

"'Will you remember me? Don't let your life pass you by.... weep not for the memory'..." 

As they got to the last word, SC's voice faded out. Tiki swallowed the sob building in her. 

*I'm the only one left...* 

"Tiki, it's just you now." 

"I know." She thought for a moment, then continued, "I bet it's like waiting to die. You know it's moments away. Your friends are gone, but you still wanna hold on a little longer because you're afraid of what will happen next, everyone's just standing there, waiting..." Suddenly, Tiki felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her. She couldn't hold out much longer- 

"Dad, I swear I'm not gonna forgive you easily for this." 

Having stated this aloud, Tiki curled up into a ball on the floor, and fell asleep. 

He thought,*She called me... Dad...She's never...* 

That title, added on to everything that'd just happened, broke the emotional barrier he'd struggled so hard to build for this moment. He turned away from the others, not wanting to show the tears tracing their way down his cheeks, despite the fact that the others were in the same state. 

* 

Tiki woke up to the sound of her alarm blaring talk radio in her ear. She moved lethargically, pushing all the buttons on her alarm until, finally, it fell silent. She glared at the red numbers on the clock. 

*5.30. Why the hell is my alarm going off at 5.30 am?* 

It didn't make sense. This meant rational thought was necessary; it was too early for that, but she tried anyway. 

*Okay. It's August. Noted. It's a Wednesday. Noted. It's 5.30 in the morning, and the sun's coming up. Ooh.... pretty.... Erk, anyway... was I gonna watch the sunrise? No, I would've been up all night if I wanted to do that." 

Then, like the sun, it dawned on her. 

*School.* 

This realized, she stumbled out of her room dazedly, more in a state of alarm than awake, her one driving thought being *CAFFEINE...* 

* 

StormChaser awoke himself at 5.15. He was hungry, and a dream had disturbed him; He probably would've woken up sometime not much later anyway, so it seemed as good a time as any to get out of bed. 

He wandered into the kitchen in lavender pyjamas, fumbling around for food, and glanced at the calendar. His eyes widened. 

"School?! How could I have forgotten that?! NICHOLAS!" 

He ran to wake up his younger brother. 

* 

"-TAKE ADVICE FROM FOOLS/ PLAYING EVErying is cool..." 

Lea only turned down the volume on her radio alarm; She liked the song that was playing. She glanced at the clock: 6.15. 15 minutes before she had to be out of bed and dressed. It was a school day, first day of ninth grade. She'd been 15 for 1 week, 4 days. She smiled inwardly. Tiki had probably forgotten what day it was. She could laugh at her for it later. 

*What am I gonna wear?...* A little anxiety dragged her out of bed 10 minutes earlier than she would have liked so she could find clothes... And, for the first day, maybe a little makeup... 

* 

As soon as the alarm went off at 5.50, Lucky was up and out of bed. 

"School! Woohoo!" She practically floated upstairs from the basement, tripping on the last step, stumbling and almost falling into the kitchen, and grabbed a banana and a glass of orange juice to start her day with. 

"I'm joining track first thing, and the best way to begin that is with a healthy breakfast!" 

The cheerful girl bounced through her household, waking her parents and alarming her cats. 

* 

It was noon. Something was happening in Tiki's room, something science itself was having a hard time explaining, something Silph had once called a trans-dimensional vortex. Tiki's father stepped through, and looked around. 

Pictures were taped to the walls of Tiki and her friends. he looked at all of them, studying how his daughter, his creation, had changed in the last several months. 

He reminded himself what he was there for, and brought himself back to the task at hand. He looked around for the nearest notebook, and found one laying open on the bed. He wondered for a moment why it was out; It seemed to contain personal information... He glanced over at the door, saw it was closed, and upon testing it found that it was locked. 

*That explains it... It's safer behind a locked door than just closed.* 

Next step: Find a pen, and write the instructions. That was done easily. Now to leave... 

He returned the way he came, leaving little out of place. 

The plan was set. Now, for it to spring into action. 

* 

Tiki unlocked her door after a long first day. All she wanted to do was write in her notebook and go to sleep... 

She dropped her backpack to the floor, making a satisfactory thud, flopped onto her bed, lifted the pen from it's position in the blankets- 

"What the hell?!" 

Someone else's handwriting was in her notebook. 

She read the writing, then called Lea. 

"LEA!! Someone's been in my ROOM!!" 

"How? You lock your door." 

"Trans- dimensional Vortex." 

"What?" 

"That's what the note said! And it says how to make one, too!" 

"Oh... really?..." 

"Come see! I've got proof! Proof, I tell you!" 

"I'll get over there as soon as I can, sit tight." 

* 

It took three days to get it around to Lea, SC, and Lucky; Finally, on Saturday, all four kids joined up at Tiki's house, and she was hopping with impatience. 

"C'mon! Let's try it!" She demanded for the 10th time. 

"OKAY! Fine! Let's do it!" SC said, irritated with the complaining. 

With his consent added to Lea's, and Lucky having no way to back out, Tiki dragged them outside, and they began the process. 

The version of the process was the "out of lab" version that had been discovered by four certain Silph workers; They'd tested various versions, and found this one to work the best, based on memory of the labwork they'd done. Most of the data had been destroyed before Team Rocket had completely taken over Silph, along with various other pieces of valuable information; anything to keep Rocket from abusing it. 

This being out of lab work, they were going to need to use more... basic instruments. 

Elements. 

"Lea, call Fire, SC, call Air, Lucky, call Water. I'll call Earth." 

"Is this really necessary?" Lucky asked, still resisting. 

"Yes, now come on!" 

They stood around a tree in Tiki's backyard; It was half dead. Literally. one half of the plant didn't grow, or have blossoms, or anything. It had died some how. 

They all began concentrating on the elements Tiki had assigned. Then, the next step: 

"FIRE." Lea's bold announcement was shortly followed by a blast of hot air, alarming the four. The tree's branches had burst into flames, and the heat flaring off created a strange bubble around them. Lea's eyes widened, but she didn't say or do anything else. 

"WATER." Lucky's cry didn't make the fire stop; instead, the fire was now encased in a solid wall of water, containing them in their circle around the tree. 

"AIR." Now winds stirred, blowing on the flames, causing them to grow and spiral in the opposite direction of the water. 

"EARTH." Vines grew up from the ground around them, reaching the top and growing back down, wrapping around until the glow from the burning- and strangely now vibrantly alive- tree couldn't be seen from the outside. 

Then, unpredicted in the note from Tiki's notebook, a fifth and final call spoke from somewhere deep within them, not a voice but a knowing: "SPIRIT." 

With that, everything collapsed inwards toward the tree. The four now extremely alarmed children felt part of themselves fly towards the multicolored mass around them and the tree, then lash back, sending them all ten feet backwards. When they looked up, they saw something amazing. 

It was like looking through a window. On the other side was a cityscape, full of large buildings, none of which any of them recognized. There was a bulletin board on a building, featuring something Lea and Tiki recognized almost instantly. 

"Tiki, isn't that a..." 

"...Pokemon?" 

"But how?" 

"I thought it was just a videogame and cartoon...." 

"Me too...." 

They looked at each other. 

"COOL!!" 

Lucky reached towards it hesitantly, but as her hand neared, the image shuddered, rippling, then began shaking violently, then faded to the same swirling colors as the border, collapsed, and exploded, sending debris everywhere that the four could only feel in their souls. Lea felt it splatter inside her, causing her heart to pound and spirit to ache. 

"That was.... Odd..." SC muttered, sounding like he'd been holding his breath. 

"Yeah, but it was cool!" Tiki said, excitement building. "We've gotta find a way to stabilize it better, try again-" 

"Not today, Tiki," Lea sighed, poking her friend in the side and making her squeak. "Not for a while. Don't you feel a little... you know, tired after doing that?" 

Tiki paused for a moment, then said, "Now that you mention it... I guess so... I'm hungry." 

Lea grinned at her best friend- someone she'd often referred to as a sister- and said, "Okay, let's go inside. I brought some recorded episodes of Pokemon, we can play the Pokemon Drinking game!" 

"YAY!" all four cried. 

"Ooh.... Don't we need Coke for that?" SC asked. 

"Not a problem!" Tiki said. "I nagged mom into buying a twelve pack. Seeing as Lucky won't drink the soda, she can have milk or water or something and you and me and Lea can have Coke, okay? Okay!" 

Tiki dashed into the house, friends hot on her heels. 

* 

The school year flew by. Before it seemed time to be, it was late May. At some point during that year (no one could remember when), the four had taken to calling themselves the Rocket Clan/Quartet/Four (it varied from day to day, week to week, and who's company they were in), after Team Rocket. Another thing no one could figure out; Somehow, they'd all become fans of the bad guys on Pokemon. Lea and Tiki had memorized the Team Rocket Motto in under a week, and would occaisionally try to remember Butch and Cassidy's motto (and usually fail.) 

Now, Labor Day Weekend, Lea and Tiki were sitting in their rooms, on the phone. 

"Lea... I'm bored... and I'm hot..." 

"I'd try and fix that, but I'm currently trying to remember how to move more than my jaw." 

"Can you remember your locker com?" 

"Uhm... barely." 

"Okay." Tiki stared at her ceiling, jumped a little as she heard something scratching above it, realized it was just the bats above her attic room, and relaxed. 

Then she got an idea. 

"LEA! Let's go get ice cream!" 

"Ack! Okay, where?" 

"Saint Nick's Ice Cream Parlor, where else? Don't answer that." 

"Okay. When?" 

"Half an hour?" 

"I'll go bug mom about it. Hang on." 

"Okay, scream when you get back, I'm going to put some actual clothes on," Tiki said, glancing down at her oversized t-shirt and boxers. 

"Okay." 

Tiki dropped the phone, and began rummaging through the pile of clean laundry in front of her closet for a white t-shirt and her only pair of black shorts. 

She pulled off the clothes she was wearing, pulled on the clothes she'd found, pulled her hair back into a ponytail with a red scrunchy, and picked up the phone. 

"You back?" 

"What?" came a distant response. 

"ARE YOU BACK?!" 

"Almost, I decided to change too!" 

"OKAY, SO DOES THAT MEAN YOU CAN GO?!" 

"Yeah!" 

"COOL!" 

There was a rustle, then Lea speaking normally into the phone. 

"Meet you there in about 20 minutes?" 

"Sounds g-" 

SHYAOOO. 

"What the HELL was THAT?!" both girls cried. Tiki ran towards her back window and looked outside... 

*To be continued....* 

Next time on Vortex: 

The Vortex seems to have opened itself, sending the main cast of Pokémon through to the world of the self-proclaimed "neo-Rockets"! Somehow, they need to help send the visitors back to their world before their parents ask too many questions! ^_^^_^^_~ 


	3. Prelude (Act 2)

Vortex Act 2: Prelude   


"Oh my God," Tiki muttered. She ran towards the stairway of her attic room, hollering, 

"LEA! I'LL BE RIGHT BACK!", tore down the stairs onto the second floor, down to the first floor, across the house and out the back door. 

* 

^Meanwhile, ten minutes earlier on a different plane of existence...^ 

"We'll get those little twerps this time," Jessie muttered. 

"Yeah!" James agreed, then added, whining, "But why do we have to do it with them?" He pointed an accusing finger across the path at Butch and Cassidy. 

"Because," Jessie snarled, "The boss doesn't think we're capable of doing it ourselves, so he's making us work with them." 

James frowned, pouting a little. "I dun' wanna." 

"Oh James, grow up!" 

"Hey, Brock, when can we stop for a rest?" 

The pair froze, then plunged down into the bushes, as the Meowth- dubbed Team Twerp approached. Across the way, Butch and Cassidy did the same. 

"Hmm... according to this map, there's a large clearing up ahead a little ways." 

"How far?" Ash asked. 

"Uhm.... I'd say another three miles!" 

Misty sighed. "I wanna rest NOW!" 

"Chuu..." 

The three pulled to a stop, directly between the two Rocket groups. 

"Oh, this couldn't be more perfect!" Cassidy whispered to Butch. 

"On the count of three..." Butch started into a walkie-talkie, who's mate was with James. 

"1... 2... 3!" 

The four Rockets launched out of the low shrubs, surrounding the three kids, who were 

now screaming in alarm. In an instant, Team Rocket had surrounded them. 

Meowth and Raticate stepped out of the bushes and onto the road, grinning menacingly. 

"We're here for da Pikachu," Meowth said. "If you don't give it up, the six of us are gonna fight you until you can't argue with us anymore." He brought his paws up and bared his well sharpened claws. 

"Oh, go away!" Snapped a now irritated Misty. 

"Yeah, blast off and bother someone else!" Ash added. 

"Pi KA!" 

Jessie sighed in annoyance. "Can we please get this over with? In case you hadn't noticed, it's going to rain soon." Ash and company looked skywards for a brief moment, and saw she spoke the truth; It had clouded over quite suddenly, and it looked- and smelled- like rain. 

The two teams (so to speak) watched each other, waiting for the other one to make a move. 

Then it started to pour. 

Butch nudged Cassidy, getting her attention. "I'm gonna jump at 'em, Cass. Back me up." 

"Right," she replied, bracing herself to jump. Jessie and James couldn't hear him through the rain, but could guess what he was planning, and did the same. 

"YAH!" He cried suddenly, leaping towards Ash. The other Rockets took the initiative, and followed his example. 

But something made a startling noise, causing everyone to stop short. 

There was a swirling cloud of... something, about six feet in heighth, four feet across. There was an image on the surface: was a house, viewed from the back yard, and a side room with large open windows with 3 cats- two in one window, one in the next- sitting and watching them. 

Everyone present stood stock still, looking at this strange site. Team Rocket glanced at each other's expressions. 

James stepped closer, looking at it thoughtfully with rain-blurred vision. Misty walked up to it, reaching out a hand, hesitated, then touched it with her finger tips. The surface rippled like water, then settled. 

"Misty, stop," Ash muttered. "We don't know what it is." 

She sighed, and pulled her fingers out. 

Two things happened at once: One was that Misty stepped on a small stone protruding from the muddy ground, and started to lose her balance. The other was that a sudden blast - or maybe a pull- of wind knocked into her, and threw her balance on the wet muck off even more, and she slipped, falling backwards towards the strange mass. 

"Misty!" Ash cried, launching himself forward, Pikachu clinging to his shoulder. 

"Ash, what are you doing?!" Brock hollered, grabbing his friend's shirt. Both boys strained, one towards and the other away from the cloud. 

Brock felt something tap his shoulder. He turned and looked to see Jessie smile at him, wave cheerfully,, then shove him towards Ash. 

"Agh!" He yelled, flying through the vortex behind Ash. 

"Hmph. About time he got out of my way," she muttered. She leaned forward, and jumped through. James grabbed hold of her boot and was dragged through with her, screaming "Jessie, don't leave me!!" Meowth pounced on James and dug his claws in, making little holes in the leg of James's pants. 

Cassidy sighed, grabbed Butch by the arm, and said "C'mon, let's go..." 

The two jumped through, shortly followed by Raticate. Just as the window between worlds was closing, a Pidgey swooped through, and squawked in surprise, it's call to echo in the now empty woods a few moments later. 

* 

Tiki surveyed the mild mess in her back yard, leaning against the wall next to a window. "I shoulda seen this coming," she muttered. The flame point siamese sitting in the window closest to her trilled, purring. She surveyed the mess the Vortex had left her to clean up. 

Seven soaked humans and three wet animals were sprawled on the ground in front of the dead crab apple tree in the corner of the yard, recovering from their Trans- dimensional trip. One by one, they stood, assisting each other onto their feet. 

"What... What happened?" Ash mumbled. 

"You just took a trip via Trans-Dimensional Air. Welcome to Menomonie, Wisconsin. how may I help you?" Tiki said, voice dripping with honeyed sarcasm. 

Everyone looked up, mildly alarmed. 

"Team Rocket, Team Twerp, you have just crossed from one world to another. Though I wonder... How was it stable enough to send so many people through at once? Last time we tried it, it fell apart so easily..." The group in front of Tiki sweatdropped, as Tiki began muttering to herself and ultimately forgetting what she was doing. 

"Uhm, excuse me," Jessie said. "But... how do you know our titles?" 

Ash, Misty, and Brock, fuming, all cried "We are NOT Team Twerp!" 

"TV," Tiki replied, a little distractedly. "I aughta call Lea... Wait, she's already on the phone! Oh screw it, she'll understand if I take a few minutes longer..." 

"Has Team Rocket's fame spread to other dimensions?" Cassidy asked, eyes glimmering at the thought. 

Tiki, finally realizing that puzzling over this new dilemma wasn't going to get her anywhere just then, shook herself off a little and said, "I guess you could put it that way... You see, in this world? You're all a cartoon..." 

"WHAT?!" Everyone cried. 

"Yeah... That's why it's kinda surprising to see you all here..." 

"You didn't seem THAT surprised," Butch stated. 

Tiki grinned. "Give me about an hour. By that time, the shock will have worn off and it'll finally hit me." 

"By the way, who ARE you?" James asked. 

Tiki blinked, realizing she hadn't introduced herself. She bowed elaborately, saying, "Tiki Rocket, of Neo-Team Rocket, at your service." 

Jessie, James, Butch, and Cassidy looked at each other, and blinked twice. 

"You're from Team Rocket?!" Ash cried, jumping into a defensive position. 

"NEO-Team Rocket. Emphasis on Neo. We're sorta version 2.0. In this world, we'd get destroyed for doing some of the stuff that TR version 1.0 does, so we do things a little less... illegal. Like messing with people's heads. I suppose if we had the insurance to keep us out of prison, like a boss to bail us out or something, and something like Pokemon to steal, you can bet we'd do it that way." Tiki sighed. "But, until we can get the Vortex stable enough, we're stuck here." 

"If you're a team, where are the others?" Brock asked, trying to change the subject. "I think you'll be meeting them shortly. However, to finalize plans, I need to finish my conversation with Lea. Okay?" 

Without waiting for a response, she turned and headed back into the house. "You can come in, if you'd like!" she called over her shoulder. The siamese in the window meowed. 

As soon as she was in the house, Tiki took off for her room at a mad dash. When she got there, she collapsed on the floor, grabbed the phone and said, "Lea?" 

"Ack! Hi, where were you?" 

"The Rockets have come to visit." 

"Lucky and SC? Oh good, they can come along too." 

"Wrong Rockets." 

"What other- Wait. Team Rocket?" 

Tiki nodded, even though Lea couldn't have known that. "They're here, and so's Team 

Twerp. The Vortex opened itself-" 

A soft cooing sound from Tiki's bed- which was in front of the window- made her jump. 

She got up off of the floor where she'd landed, and looked. 

"Oh great," Tiki muttered. "It looks like a wild Pidgey came through too... It made a crash course with my bed." 

Lea giggled. "Sounds like you've got your hands full." 

"Yeah, you could put it that way. Hey Lea, call Lucky and SC and make them meet us at the ice cream parlor." 

"Right. Talk to you in a bit?" 

"Yup. Love ya, sis." 

"You too, bye!" 

The two hung up their phones, and Tiki grabbed the bird and headed downstairs. 

"Hey Ash? Can I have a PokeBall?" she asked. 

"Uh... sure, I guess..." 

He tossed one to her, and she looked at it thoughtfully, then tossed it back. 

"Never mind. I don't think I need it that badly." She grabbed a canvas bag from the kitchen doorknob, and carefully set the bird inside. The disoriented creature stuck it's head out and looked around, cooing a little. Tiki shouldered the bag, shooing her four cats away from it. "Go sniff the people, you dumb beasts..." 

Finally, she pulled some shoes on, turned to the small crowd, and said, "All right. Let's go." 

"Where're we going?" Brock asked. 

"To the designated NTR hangout: St. Nick's Ice Cream Parlor!" 

She lead the odd parade through the house, and out to the street. 

* 

Tiki set a brisk pace, and maintained it the entire way, chattering to the newcomers about one thing or another, mostly pointing out the differences between each world, and sometimes explaining things that were the same by accident. By the end of the trip, she was holding a steady conversation with James about style and hair products, while most of the others sat back and listened or held quieter conversations among themselves. 

Compared to the heat outside, the parlor was a refreshing cool. Butch, who had had little distraction on their walk, breathed a sigh of relief; He'd removed the black overshirt on the walk, but underneath that the black T-shirt had left little redemption from the sun. He cursed inwardly for having a black uniform. 

As he looked around the parlor, he noticed a girl with tightly curled, brown hair and an identical outfit to Tiki's sitting at one of the small tables, scribbling in a red notebook. The girl looked up, making sudden and surprising eye contact to his inquisitive glance. Her expression brightened drastically, and she launched herself upwards. 

"Oh my God!! You're from Team Rocket, aren't you?!! Oh wow, this is so totally awesome!!" She cried, voice causing everyone to wince. 

"Lea!! Cool it!" Tiki shrilled back at her, calling forth another wince from all present. She stepped up to the other girl, resting her hands on the girl's shoulders, and said, "Everyone, this is my best friend LeaMarie, who is currently quite spastic because she's probably had too much caffeine today." 

"Whereas Tiki probably hasn't had enough," Lea responded. "Otherwise she would've been as spastic as me." 

Tiki dug her nails lightly into the other girl's shoulders. "Shut up, Lea dear." Lea swatted her companion's hands away. 

"It's true. Bite me, Tiki-chan." 

"I'd really rather not..." 

"Ack! Tiki!" 

"What?! I didn't do anything!" 

"You haven't yet. You're thinking of something." 

"Yeah, well... nyeh!" Tiki shot, sticking her tongue out. 

"Nyeh back!" Lea replied, mimicking the movement. 

Team Rocket and Team Twerp watched the strange exchange, sweatdropping. Tiki must've noticed, because she pulled her tongue back into her mouth and grinned a little nervously at them. 

"Sorry about that. Sometimes we get a little carried away..." 

"You started it," Lea muttered, unconsciously inciting another argument. 

At that moment, the bells tied to the door rang, and the rush of traffic from outside got momentarily louder. Everyone looked to the door to see a handsome, blond young man step into the store. 

Lea and Tiki launched themselves at him. 

"SC-kun!" 

"We love you!" 

The girls threw their arms around his neck, grinning happily. He sighed disgustedly, muttering "You two are weird," and trying to hide the grin spreading across his face. He hugged them back. 

"This," Tiki stated, "is my big brother StormChaser. He's your typical blond male bimbo and a major airheaded idiot, but we love him anyway and he can be really smart and stuff." She grinned. "Right, SC?" 

StormChaser rolled his eyes at his surrogate little sister. "I'm way smarter than you. Look at my GPA." 

"Hey, the only reason my GPA is so bad is because I never do my homework, so that doesn't count." 

"Then do your homework!" 

"I don't wanna!" 

"Well fine, be that way then." 

"I will. Dammit, I want ice cream!" Tiki declared, shifting topics suddenly and drastically. 

Jessie and James watched the trio standing before them as they bickered between each other about ice cream and who was buying for who of the visitors and various other equally useless points. "I get the feeling this is a small family of high maintenance," she muttered. "Do you think they ever stop arguing long enough to do something productive?" 

"Well, Tiki mentioned something about messing with people's heads..." James started. 

"I'd say they're doing a fine job of it," both Butch and Cassidy stated, also eyeing the fight that was starting to break out. 

Just then, the door bell jangled again. 

"Hi everyone!" cried the girl who had just stepped in. 

Tiki, Lea, and SC stopped arguing and disengaged their hands from necks and wrists, and all three responded. "Hi Lucky!" 

Tiki stepped away from her other siblings and up to the new girl. 

"This, everyone, is Lucky, youngest of the Rocket Four, and the athlete/ fashionably inclined member of the group." 

"Hey, I'm fashionably inclined, too!" StormChaser said indignantly. 

"Hie!" Lucky cried cheerfully to the stunned visitors. Lea and StormChaser stood with Tiki and Lucky, and the four of them struck a pose. 

"We're Neo Team Rocket," Lea started. 

"Defenders of all that is true to our hearts," Lucky continued. 

"Believers in true happiness and innocence," SC declared. 

"And destined for more than what this world can offer!" Tiki stated firmly. 

"Together, we will stabilize the Vortex!" they said in unison. 

Their small audience applauded. "You've gotta admire their team spirit," Ash muttered. 

"Think they can ever get organized enough to finish a project, though?" Misty asked, grinning. 

"Just let me hook up with the babe," Brock said, drooling a little and blushing. He'd been like that since Lucky walked in the door. 

Misty grabbed his ear, frowning. "Let's just get some ice cream, Romeo." 

"All right!" Lea said. "Who's ready for ice cream?" 

Lea pulled out a pad of paper and a pen, and started taking orders from everyone. Meanwhile, Tiki had everyone take a seat, and began calling orders to the girl behind the counter (who, by now, was looking mildly alarmed). StormChaser and Lucky got samples of ice creams for Pikachu and Raticate, and SC took a look at Tiki's Pidgey. He'd had some experience with injured animals, and was an optimal person to have look at it and check for breaks. 

Cassidy watched in amazement as the four teenagers change from disorganized, whiny, bratty little kids to form a working team circuit in under 5 seconds. 

"I don't know how they do it," she said to Butch, "But they could definitely teach some Team Rocket members a few tips." 

"I know what you mean," he grated back. "It's pretty admirable." 

Just then, Tiki turned around and nearly smacked into Lea. 

"ACK!" both girls cried, followed by "Lea, careful!" "You be careful where you're turning, baka!" "You're the baka, frizz-head." "You shouldn't talk, with all the chemicals you've used on your hair it's a wonder your brain's still working." "Oh shut up." Then, both broke out laughing. 

Butch and Cassidy sweatdropped at the exchange of insults while the girls carried on handing out ice cream. 

"Or maybe..." 

"We spoke to soon?" Butch finished for her. 

"Total comes to $20 and six cents," said the girl behind the counter. As Lea opened her bill fold, Tiki snickered, muttering "hee hee, sixth sense" and was promptly swatted by her older sister, who then handed a twenty and six pennies to the girl behind the counter as if nothing out of place had just happened. 

"Thanks, Rita," Lea said, smiling. 

"You're welcome, girls," Rita replied, smiling wanly. She was starting to get used to the odd behavior from the four. 

It took half an hour for everyone to finish their ice cream. There was lots of useless chatter said. seeing as most of it wasn't memorable, no one bothered recording it for later use, other than Misty talking about how she'd left Togepi in the care of her sisters for a few days after being bribed, and was concerned that they would end up hurting it, and Tiki muttering something about it being a good thing she hadn't brought it with her because if her sisters didn't hurt it, Tiki probably would've. StormChaser had glared at her for saying as much, replying "I think it's cute," to which Tiki rolled her eyes. 

After sitting around for a while, Lea pulled Tiki aside. "Tiki, what are we going to do with all these people? We can't possibly keep them around, you know." 

"I know," Tiki said, nodding sagely. "I've been thinking about that." 

"Any plans?" 

"As of yet... Hm... Think you can come over tonight?" 

"Yeah, for a little while." 

"Lucky, SC!" 

"What?" came the simultaneous response. 

"You're coming over tonight." 

"Okay!" 

"Why?" 

Tiki glared at SC for defying her. "Because we're going to open the vortex again!" 

* 

"This day has been murder," Tiki typed into her computer later that evening. Much later, in fact; It was a few minutes to midnight. "After our little trip to the ice cream parlor, we came back here and had to figure out how to amuse our visitors for a few hours. I figure that, if we use the cover of night to do this, there's less chance the neighbors will notice and ask questions. I asked Lea to cover for me while I took a nap, cuz I knew I was gonna need it if we were gonna open the vortex again. 

"Lea did a fine job of covering, however the stress levels were running high, and after two hours she woke me up and we switched off. I'm glad she holds up under stress so well; it must've been hell for her to try and settle people into whatever they were doing. Ash and Brock were trying to beat the hell out of each other on 'Evil Zone', and Ash obviously has no idea how to play video games because he kept losing to Brock and being a bad loser about it. I've notice that this mirrors how poorly he handles losing pokemon battles. I had to settle down a few arguments between them because Misty- who was watching- wasn't making it any better. Ash kept claiming that Butch and James's music selection was interfering with his ability to play. I would've understood that if they'd had the music going the whole time, but they were usually too busy arguing over which CD/ song to play, meaning that consistent music simply wasn't. 

"Jessie and Cassidy, for all the hatred they seem to have between each other, were actually getting along rather well on the computer. I think what makes them so livid with each other is the fact that they are so much alike. They were looking up sites on the internet (nothing dirty, all you perverts out there reading my journal), and apparently have the same tastes in just about everything. It was interesting watching them; an unexposed bystander would think they were best friends, which makes me wonder what came up between them to make them act the way they do towards each other. I think they would get along perfectly. Well, that was a few hours ago, I finally herded everyone into the TV room, put the futon down so they could all fit on it, and put in 'Magic Knight Rayearth' in hopes that they would at least stop arguing. 

"They did. It was amazing, they're all getting into it. When the first tape ended, someone must've gotten up and put in the second and third tapes. Every now and then I hear James getting frustrated with Fuu for not telling Ferio her feelings, and Ash snarling at Zagato for being evil. It's pretty funny ^_^." 

Tiki hit the save button, closed out, got up and walked into the other room. Ascot was agonizing over his latest defeat, and Jessie looked like she empathized. Tiki sent SC to wake up LeaMarie, then faced the group on the futon. 

"Everyone!" she announced, "I need you to go out into the back yard!" 

There were complaints thrown at her immediately, people begging for "just one more episode!" 

"Sorry, but you have to get home!" she cried over their pleas. 

On the way out, Lucky grabbed the Pidgey,who sat calmly in Lucky's arms, and cooed at her. She lead the way outside, and sat down with it in her lap, waiting for the others. 

Outside, Tiki seated everyone in a circle and had them leave space for herself and her older brother and sister, and ran back inside. Team Rocket, who's members were sitting in a row next to each other, began to whisper. 

"James?" Butch whispered. "Yes?" 

"Do you think they're...?" 

James nodded, and Jessie said the words each of them had been thinking since they had met the four children. 

"The rumored lost children of Silph..." 

"Do you think we've found them?" Cassidy asked. 

"It's possible," Jessie replied. 

"Then we need to bring them back with us," Butch said, face grim set. 

James shook his head. "Not now. Definitely not now." 

"They've certainly grown a lot since then," Cassidy said a little whistfully. "Think they remember us?" 

"It's possible," Jessie repeated. "I sometimes think that they are linked to us even through the dimensions... How else do you suppose they would follow in our footsteps the way they did?" 

"It was a little indirect," James stated. "Though I suppose they did..." 

"Even dimensions can't seperate loved ones completely," Butch said distantly. 

At that moment, the backdoor banged shut, causing everyone to look up. 

The three had finally come out, looking serious. Tiki had a bag slung over her shoulder; as they approached the circle, she unslung it and began to pull it open. 

The bright moonlight showed what she was carrying: Candles. Thirty or more candles, dumped into the middle of the circle, which she and her siblings began arranging in a smaller circle in the center. 

Lea pulled a matchbook out of her pocket, which raised looks from everyone but her siblings. 

"Lea's kinda got this afinity with fire," Tiki explained. "She's almost always carrying matches with her." 

"She's only fourteen, isn't she?" Jessie said. "She shouldn't be carrying matches." 

Lea grinned. "Why not?" 

Jessie fish mouthed for a moment, then gave up. "It just seems a little... odd." 

"We're all little odd," SC stated, looking skyward. He raised his hands into the air a little; a moment later, a light breeze blew past them all, causing the candles to flicker. 

"Careful," Lea warned. 

"Sorry," SC said, smiling guiltily. 

Tiki took a breath for another explanation, but StormChaser beat her to it, saying, "It's a weird talent I discovered a long time ago." no one questioned him further. 

"Any other talents you want to share?" Brock asked nervously. 

"Not yet," Tiki muttered. 

The four kids took their places around the circle: Tiki to the North, Lea to the South, StormChaser to the East, and Lucky to the West. 

"Everyone hold hands and close your eyes," Tiki ordered, "and concentrate on getting home. We'll take care of the rest." 

Misty thought hard about her Togepi, her sisters, Cerulean, the gym... 

Ash concentrated on thoughts of his mother, Professor Oak, the Pokemon League games, his destiny... 

Brock thought of his hope to become a breeder on the well known Scissor Street, Jenny, Joy, all the other girls there that he wanted to be in love with... 

Team Rocket as a whole was thinking about Saffron City, and the felled Silph Company, and thoughts of a past they'd hidden entirely from the boss and the Team Rocket grunts, from everyone except each other... 

The Pokemon, on the other hand, sat in or near the laps of their owners- or, in Pidgey's case, temporary care takers- and hoped that all this would work. 

It took a few minutes for everyone to settle into their thoughts, but as they did, an energy field began building around them. It began circulating through their connected hands. It grew until, soon, all of them felt it pulsing through their bodies. 

Tiki focused hard on the element she was to be representing. Earth. Ivy. Green. Dying. The smell of grass. The crunch of dead leaves. Calm. Stablizing. Growing. Growing like trees, upward, spreading. Strength. 

To the nonexistent bystander, the aura from the energy around the group was almost tangible. As the energy passed through Tiki, it glowed a vibrant green. 

Stormchaser was pulling up everything he associated with the element he stood for. Air. Breeze. Gentle. Soft. Touching. Clouds. Storms. Tornadoes. Yellow gold. Rushing. Carrying. Pushing forward, giving hope. Confidence. 

As the energy rushed through him, it became a brazen gold. 

Lea concentrated on her element. Fire. Heat. Warm. Comfort. Ambition. Red. Consumption. Life force. Empowering feeling burning within, taking charge. Passion. As her thoughts fed into the current the group was sending through, it flared red. 

Lucky tapped into everything she could think to associate with the element. Water. Cool. Soothing. Fluidity. Rain. Emotions. solitude. Conforming. Flowing. Blue. A perfection, smooth movement. Peace. 

The energy swept to blue as it passed through her. 

The circle of energy had built into almost a solid wall around them, glowing with power. Tiki felt the energy as it built within her, stronger, forceful, collecting in her chest; around the circle, it had started building in her siblings as well, until finally, she cried out the watchword that would set things into the final motion: 

"EARTH!" 

The energy wall formed a solid barrier around the group, and vines shot up from the ground until they completely covered the light emitted from the barrier. There was nothing getting in or out of there. 

"AIR!" 

StormChaser's call started a breeze circling around the interior and exterior of the barrier, clockwise, whirling faster. Outside the barrier, stormclouds materialized and covered over the sky, sending the night into darkness. 

"FIRE!" 

Lea's powerful cry brought the candle flames raging upwards, burning hot and bright; outside the barrier, the night became warm, the air thick. 

"WATER!" 

Lucky's smooth voice brought the rain pouring down outside, and set things within into motion again; the barrier now whirled, colors swirling together... 

"Oh my gosh," Misty said, "It looks like the thing that brought us here to begin with... Like we're inside a bubble of it..." 

And then, the final call rang out from within all present, a sound that was not a sound: 

"Spirit..." For the four NTR siblings, the feeling was familiar; the feeling that a part of their soul was shooting out of them towards the center of the circle into a strange mass, then firing back into them; the others, however, were a little less braced for it. 

Cassidy's mouth opened from the shock. It almost hurt, and she wanted to cry out, but it was as if her voice had locked in place... 

Then she slammed backwards, against the barrier. It caught her, as if she'd only been dropped onto a huge down comforter, or a cloud, and she slid down gently. As she and everyone else landed on the ground again, the barrier seemed to pop; bits of it should have flung outward, like a bubble, but instead they froze, spun, and flung themselves back at the "spirit mass" in the center. 

Vines, rain, flames, wind, all whirled inward with the barrier, and the mass spun together until you couldn't tell what was what, a confusing ball of matter- and then slowed. 

The rain had stopped, the wind had faded to a barely detectable breeze, the candles had all gone out, and the vines had vanished all together. In the center of the circle was the vortex they'd called up. 

"That was amazing," Ash said, bewildered. 

Lea stared at it in awe. "Wow, it looks way better than last time..." 

"We did it, you guys!" Tiki cried. "We did it! We succeeded! It's stable!" 

"After that, it has to be," SC stated wryly. 

"Well then," Lucky said. "Who's first?" 

"I am!" Misty cried. "I wanna go back home! I want my Togepi!" 

"Fine, go then allready," Tiki said a little impatiently, unable to see how she could like the egg. 

"All right..." Misty was hesitating a little, mildly afraid that it wouldn't work... 

Ash took her hand. "Come on, Misty, let's go." 

His words- or maybe his hand- must've made her feel bolder, because she stepped forward with him, and jumped in. 

"Waah!!" both cried as they shot through. They crashed in a heap on the ground, and rolled a couple feet before finally coming to a stop, Ash with his arms around Misty, trying desperately to keep her from getting injured. 

"Are you all right?" he asked after a moment. 

"Yeah, I'm fine..." she said, blushing. 

Ash realized he hadn't let her go, and did so immediately, blushing and apologizing profusely. 

"It's all right, Ash, I.." 

Before she could continue, Brock came crashing through the vortex, interrupting anything else that might have been said. Misty cursed him inwardly, thinking, *Another missed chance...* Brock was shortly followed by Raticate, Meowth, Pikachu, and the Pidgey, which flew off cooing. 

"Ow..." Brock muttered, standing up. He rubbed his backside, and looked back at the vortex. "Hey, cool, we can watch what's going on over there still." 

Ash and Misty walked over to see what he was talking about, joined by the abnormally silent Meowth. 

On the other side of the Vortex, Team Rocket was preparing for their departure. The sky had unclouded rather quickly; the stars were glinting and flickering in a picture perfect night sky, complete with a death white moon. 

The four Neo Team Rocket members faced the four Original Team members. 

"We won't forget this visit," Tiki said, otherwise at a loss for words. She didn't want them to leave, she could admit to herself. At the same time, she knew that her heroes had to return home. 

"Neither will we," Butch replied. He looked at her as she shifted nervously, unsure of what to do. 

Jessie rested a hand on Lea's shoulder. "Lead your team into victory, LeaMarie Rocket," she said, smiling at her. 

Lea smiled back. "Always. We wouldn't settle for anything less." 

James looked at SC. SC looked at James. They shrugged. It seemed a fair enough exchange. 

Cassidy stood facing Lucky, eyes locked. She wanted to say something to her, but nothing that would make sense to the girl came to mind. Finally, she settled for "Stay strong." 

Lucky gave her a wide smile. "I will!" 

Jessie turned to the Vortex. "James! Come on, let's go." 

James grinned at StormChaser, and gave him a thumbs up and a smile. SC grinned back. Then, James went to stand with his teammate, and both stepped through the vortex. 

Cassidy went next. "Butch?" 

Butch held his gaze with Tiki's. She could sense that there was something more he wanted to say: she could tell from the look on his face. All he said was, "Until next time." 

"What makes you think there'll be a next time?" she asked, curious. 

He shrugged. "Lucky guess." 

With that, he turned and followed Cassidy through. 

Neo Team Rocket stared after them, watching the other world from their side of the vortex, until Tiki murmured, "Return to your places, elements; return, until you're called again." 

The vortex came crashing down. 

* 

"Meowth," Jessie said, "why have you been so quiet for the last few days?" 

"Didn't you enjoy your trip?" James added. 

It'd been four days since they had returned from their surreal trip; Meowth had said little or nothing at all since their return. 

"Yeah..." Meowth started. "It's just... All dat stuff was so weird, I never thought there was other places so different from our world. And da stuff dat those kids did... Hey, why were you two actin' so weird around them, anyway?" 

"Weird?" Jessie questioned. "We weren't acting weird." 

"Yeah you was," Meowth said, almost accusingly. "All a youse were actin' strange." 

Butch and Cassidy, who were sharing a Rocket "bunkhouse" with them now, looked at the cat. "We weren't acting any different," Cassidy stated, "you just think we were." 

"Nice argument," Meowth muttered. 

"Go back to being quiet," Butch rasped. 

Meowth sighed, and complied. 

Later that evening, though, while the cat was asleep, the four met up in the basement, and began to talk. 

"We've got to get them back," Butch stated flatly. "We know how to bring them here. We know how to restore their memories. Soon, we could have it just like normal again." 

"You ready to start?" Cassidy asked. 

"I'm ready," James intoned. 

"Me too," Jessie said. 

"Well then, let's get to it." Butch flicked out the lights. 

* 

StormChaser rolled over in his bed in the basement, trying to fall asleep. It wasn't working. He'd been trying for the last hour, and all he'd achieved was changing positions six times and sighing at least 20. 

He thought about the events from four nights before. It was all so confusing... How did the vortex open itself to let the Rockets through to begin with? What made it strong enough then to send them back? 

And why was it that James kept stirring something inside him? It was like something he'd forgotten to take care of, he was aware that it needed to be done but not what it actually was. It was so frustrating! 

Finally, his eyes grew heavier, and a dream began to set in... 

A loud VWOOSH from behind his head startled him awake again, but before he could register what it was, a hard blow to the back of his head knocked him into unconsciousness. His final registering thought was "What is it now?!" 

* 

* 

* 

Next time on Vortex: What's going on?! This isn't the right world! Or is it? NTR is out of place, and someone's gonna be doing some major explaining! Stay tuned for the next act of "The Vortex"! 

^_^^_^^_~ 


End file.
